Telemann’s witty social comedy Pimpinone receives a blunter feminist interpretation by Royal Ballet and Opera

Telemann’s witty social comedy Pimpinone receives a blunter feminist interpretation by Royal Ballet and Opera

Telemann’s Pimpinone (1725) is perhaps second only to Pergolesi’s La serva padrona (whose plot it pre-empts) as one of the best-known examples of that curiosity of 18th century musical theatre, the intermezzo. As this description indicates, it was a work which was designed to be performed – really as two or three episodes, not continuously – between the parts of another opera. Almost always they were domestic comedies, an opera buffa in miniatur…